Donald Trump is under fire after contestants in his Miss USA pageant posed in a provocative photo shoot — but he insists they’re “magnificent role models.” The cleavage-bearing beauties caused a storm this week by posing in lacy lingerie and fishnets on the pageant’s Web site, sexing up the usual traditional look.

But, “It’s a messed-up world when I turn on the TV and this story is getting placement right after the oil spill on the ‘Today’ show,” Trump told us. “These girls are beautiful, they look great in the pictures, and in almost every case they are highly educated. They are very smart. They all do very well after the pageant, they all have great histories. To say they aren’t role models to young women is unfair. They are magnificent.” The pageant, picked up for three more years by NBC, airs Sunday at 7 p.m. “We’re on network TV, and the Miss America folks just got dumped on cable,” Trump boasts.